16 January 2013

Recently, emphasis has been placed on the heart-healthy benefits of long chain omega-3 fatty acids. Accurate quantitation of these acids in various matrixes, ranging from salmon tissue to dietary supplements, typically involves extraction, drying and derivatization to the methyl esters to permit analysis by gas chromatography. Extensive sample preparation has led to the development of novel detectors such as charged aerosol detection coupled to HPLC, which lacks the sensitivity of GC methods. This application note assesses the performance of the DB-624UI GC column for the analysis of organic acids and alcohols, without the need for time consuming derivatization.